Man fined $62,250 for clearing forest in Dickerson

Penalty one of highest ever for a forest conservation violation

The county Planning Board on Monday night reissued a Dickerson property owner a $62,250 fine for cutting down nearly 2 acres of trees without permission, one of the largest forest conservation penalties ever imposed by the county.

The Planning Board unanimously voted to fine Anthony Mereos an administrative penalty of 75 cents per square foot, for clearing 1.9 acres of forest on and around his 1.79-acre property at 17900 Trundle Road. The maximum penalty was $1 per square foot but was reduced due to the cost of actions Mereos is required to take, according to Planning Board documents. Replanting the site is expected to cost $74,830.

"The nature and extent of the damage that was done, which has been found and which the court has approved, can't be satisfied simply by reforesting the property," board Chairman Royce Hanson said.

Mereos did not have a sediment and erosion control permit or an approved forest conservation plan. He was found guilty of two sediment control violations in 2005 and bench warrants were issued before he paid the $200 fine, according to the documents.

Planning staff described the violation as "willful" and "egregious" due to the amount of clearing and the site's location in a larger forest crucial to maintaining the health of the watershed.

Mereos, formerly of Silver Spring, moved out of state and was served with a notice of the hearing in January, environmental planner Doug Johnson said. Mereos, who is representing himself in the case, did not attend the hearing and could not be reached for comment.

Mereos was issued a $1,000 civil citation for the forest clearing in October 2005 and assessed an additional administrative penalty of $62,250 by the Planning Board in July 2007. The Montgomery County Circuit Court agreed that Mereos violated forest conservation law on appeal in November 2008 but sent the case back to the board to determine a proper penalty because there was not enough evidence in the record to support it, Carol Rubin, an attorney for the Planning Board, said.

Most forest conservation violations are minor and resolved without assessing an administrative penalty, Rubin said. In January, the board fined Marcus McClure $102,000, the largest administrative penalty assessed by the board, for cutting grass, grazing horses and installing stone, asphalt and fencing within a forest conservation easement on his Laytonsville property, she said, but the fine may be reduced after McClure takes required corrective actions.

Mereos purchased his property, located within a recorded federal wetland and completely forested at the time, for $65,000 in July 2005 and began clearing soon after, according to the documents. County permitting officials told Mereos in June 2005 it was unlikely he could build a single-family home on the site because of its environmental constraints and he would need to check with county planners before removing any trees, according to the documents.

Mereos is also the subject of a Maryland Department of the Environment lawsuit for clearing in a regulated wetland. Mereos ignored stop work orders from county permitting officials, MDE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by digging several trenches in April 2006 to drain water away from the site. Mereos filled in the wetlands with four to six truckloads of dirt in January 2006 and piled cut trees in a stream traversing the property, according to the documents.